The Trouble With Love Is
by thorn-bird
Summary: P/J. A whiff of humor? I swore I'd never love again/I swore my heart would never mend/Said love wasn't worth the pain/But then I hear him call my name.


Title: The Trouble With Love Is  
  
By: Megs  
  
Rating: PG-13 for more camp-naughty-bad-fun activities.  
  
Category: Humor, Songfic, P/J, and AU, baby! AU! *points to new self confidence* Ain't it shiny?  
  
Summary: I swore I'd never love again/I swore my heart would never mend/Said love wasn't worth the pain/But then I hear him call my name.   
  
Archive: If ya want. Just let me know where!   
  
Feedback: hobbit_kisser@hotmail.com. Pwease! Or just leave reviews at FF.net.  
  
Website: http://www.geocities.com/silverbreece  
  
Recommended Listening: "The Trouble With Love Is" by Kelly Clarkson.   
  
Notes: I have had that song stuck in my head all day. And I'm sitting here in the middle of this wonderful Star Trek: The Next Generation fic when I say to myself, "Okay, I'm going to write a GM,M Songfic to that damn song."  
  
***  
  
Love can be a many splendored thing  
  
Can't deny the joy it brings  
  
A dozen roses, diamond rings  
  
Dreams for sale and fairy tales  
  
It'll make you hear a symphony  
  
And you just want the world to see  
  
But like a drug that makes you blind,  
  
It'll fool you every time  
  
***  
  
It's disgusting. Simply disgusting.   
  
Why doesn't he just go and drool down the front of her shirt? That would be more subtle than his, "My…you…humina humina humina."   
  
And she sits there and smiles like an idiot as he acts like a stalker who finally got the courage to walk up to his stalkee and tell her that she's "purty."  
  
Princess and Prince, walking off into the sunset with each other into said Prince's castle, leaving Penny the dragon behind. Don't mind her, she'll marry a man who has sex with her twice a year in the missionary position and has three mistresses on the side.   
  
Cynical, cynical. Penny the dragon is cynical. But she's hurt, even if she doesn't admit it to anyone else or herself for that matter.  
  
And as Dylan walks away, she shoots a disgusted look at her boss. Her friend. Her crush. Okay, the object of every one of her secret most innermost desires.   
  
He returns the look and steps into his office, and much against her better smart-girl judgment, she follows him.   
  
"What did Sunshine have to say?" she said cheerily with purposely fake enthusiasm that he caught.  
  
"Nothing…she wanted to know if I was free for dinner."   
  
Her heart fell. *She* had dinner plans with him tonight. She knew he couldn't turn Dylan down, either.  
  
***  
  
The trouble with love is  
  
It can tear you up inside  
  
Make your heart believe a lie  
  
It's stronger than your pride  
  
The trouble with love is  
  
It doesn't care how fast you fall  
  
And you can't refuse the call  
  
See, you got no say at all  
  
***  
  
He closed the door behind them and went behind his desk, reading the apparently invisibly ink of a yellow legal pad.   
  
"Dinner? Sounds serious," Penny says, falling onto the couch. She hid the disappointment and hurt in her voice. "Where are you guys eating?"   
  
"I don't know…she didn't say." He said, looking up.   
  
She felt sick to her stomach. She felt her throat tightening and her stomach churning and her eyes burning. Why did she want to cry? Why was she prepared for it? She couldn't cry right in front of--  
  
"Penny, are you crying?"   
  
She didn't hesitate a millisecond before indignantly crying, "What?!"  
  
He circled back around and stared at her critically. "You're eyes are watering…are you okay?"  
  
"I'm not crying, Sylvia, I have allergies."   
  
"In Miami?"   
  
"There's such a thing as grass allergies."   
  
He stared at her doubtfully for a moment before he said, "Oh wait, we had dinner plans, didn't we?"   
  
Her heart tightened at the look on his face. Concern? For her? Never.  
  
Dammit, why was she about to cry? She knew she couldn't answer him or the tears would spill over. She knew she couldn't not answer him.  
  
***  
  
Now I was once a fool, it's true  
  
I played the game by all the rules  
  
But now my world's a deeper blue  
  
I'm sadder, but I'm wiser too  
  
I swore I'd never love again  
  
I swore my heart would never mend  
  
Said love wasn't worth the pain  
  
But then I hear him call my name  
  
***  
  
So instead she shrugged and buried her face in the cushions.   
  
"It's no big deal." She had the courage to say. The choking was clearing up. She could talk.   
  
*Why* was she crying?!   
  
"You're not acting like it's not a big deal."   
  
"It's just…I don't know, you've done it plenty of times before. There's no sense in blowing everyone off for Dylan, she doesn't--"  
  
"You're crying!"   
  
"I am *not*!"  
  
***  
  
The trouble with love is  
  
It can tear you up inside  
  
Make your heart believe a lie  
  
It's stronger than your pride  
  
The trouble with love is  
  
It doesn't care how fast you fall  
  
And you can't refuse the call  
  
See, you got no say at all  
  
***  
  
He sat beside her on the couch, touching her hip in attempt to roll her over and look at her face, but she wouldn't let him. She lay very still. His hand on her hip, on that bare little spot that wasn't covered with shirt at the moment, made her vow to never take her five senses for granted again.  
  
"Stop it, Jake." She said finally, and sat up, grabbing his wrists. "See, look, I'm not crying, okay? Go to dinner with Dylan. Maybe if you bug me just a little more I'll actually start to care about the tryst you'll never have with the hair and makeup girl, okay?"   
  
She fell back down into the couch, wanting nothing more right now than to pop a gigantic sleeping pill.   
  
***  
  
Every time I turn around  
  
I think I've got it all figured out  
  
My heart keeps calling and I keep on falling  
  
Over and over again  
  
The sad story always ends the same  
  
Me standing in the pouring rain  
  
It seems no matter what I do  
  
It tears my heart in two  
  
***  
  
He touched her again, and again she remained motionless. This touch was tender, and he didn't attempt to turn her over at all. He seemed concerned.  
  
"Are you *sure* you're okay?"   
  
"Does it look like I'm okay." She said very quietly.  
  
"What?"   
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Penny…what is *wrong*?"   
  
"I'm sick, I'm going home."   
  
She leapt up and he stood too, but he didn't let her leave. He placed a hand forcefully on her chest. If she hadn't been in such a hurry with such a cluttered head, she would have knocked him on his ass and left.  
  
"Tell me why you're crying."  
  
She stared at him for a moment. "Okay. Fine. You want to know? I'll tell you. There's this guy I know. I haven't known him for that long, but I really care about him. But he cares about this other woman, see? And he's obsessed with her. I mean, he practically throws up on her--never mind. The point is, he doesn't see that there are other people in his life that care about him more than she ever will, and I…love him. And I don't want him to end up getting hurt because I--"  
  
"Care about him too much?"   
  
"Exactly." Relief flooded her. For the first time in the few months she'd known him, Jake seemed to know what she was talking about.  
  
"Sometimes things don't work out," he explained gently, touching her shoulder. "And if this guy is so blind that he can't see what's right in front of him, then he doesn't deserve you."   
  
She stared at Jake for a minute.   
  
"You're right, Jake. He doesn't deserve me."   
  
Jake smiled weakly. "He's a trucker, right?"   
  
She rolled her eyes. "No."   
  
"Hey, I'm sorry. You're obviously pretty upset…I just wanted to--"   
  
She threw her arms around his neck without another word. She felt like breaking down and sobbing into his shoulder, but didn't. She stood there until his arms finally wrapped around her waist and they stood there, wrapped around each other, one having it all figured out, and one who didn't quite have it figured out, but would eventually. Hopefully.  
  
There was not a single guarantee, actually. That's love.  
  
***  
  
The trouble with love  
  
It can tear you up inside  
  
Make your heart believe a lie  
  
It's stronger than your pride  
  
The trouble with love is   
  
It's in your heart  
  
It's in your soul  
  
You'll always lose control  
  
And you can't refuse the call  
  
See, you got no say at all  
  
***  
  
Fin 


End file.
